Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Photos © John Gellman

One of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. CSNY performed at the old Tampa Stadium in 1974. What do I remember about this show?  In the days before laminated passes, Neil Young’s dog was walking around backstage with a laminated photo ID and all access pass hanging from his collar. There was a huge amount of shrimp cocktail offered in the catering tent. I mean really huge. Biggest pile of shrimp I ever saw. Only in Tampa, I guess.  The backstage pass (thank you Joe Lambusta, wherever you are) was a little pin-on button with a Joni Mitchell drawing on it that I still have somewhere.

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greg mcgarvey - Amazing photos!! Thanks for sharing

Bob - Fabulous…great…amazing. I feel like I’m right there, timetravelling back to future.

Jill - THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN and I wish that I looked like I did back then……..
So much great music I was blessed to see/hear….seems like last night, and then I realize it was like 35 and more years ago! YIKES!!

JG - Jill – Tell me about it. Don’t we all wish we look like we did 35 years ago? Except Graham Nash. He looks great.

Em - I WAS THERE! well not backstage…lol…but on the field. I seem to recall a fairly ugly “firecracker” scenario during a quiet piano song. Was it Graham playing, or Neil? I was only 14 and not all that aware yet of who was who. Does this ring a bell or am I out of my mind and am thinking of some other show?
:)

JG - Too long ago for me to remember. Now if someone had blown up the shrimp pile, that I would remember.

EM - …meant to say, also – your photos are stellar!

Ricky C - i was there also. great show. i remember at the start joe lala bust out on the bongos with the band right behind. killer show

Jeff Tucker - My sister and her boyfriend took me and my girlfriend to see this tour at Cleveland Municipal Stadium – part of the World Series of Rock series. I was 13, and it was the third concert of my life. They played a bunch of Stills’ Mannassas stuff. The power of music: the show ended with an epic version of “Ohio”, and my sister (who attended Kent State) and about 60,000 other people (including members of the band) ended that show in tears.
Those two tickets were the best investment I ever made with paper route money.

Jeff Tucker - I forgot to sincerely thank you for bringing back those memories, John….fantastic shots. And speaking of forgetfullness…I also bought my first guitar with freakin’ paper route money! Good grief. :o )

p.s. re: csny_10 (NY & Old Black) – that seems like a very familiar shot…did that get published over the years?

MIchael Fairclough - I was there too! EM: Stephen Stills was playing during the firecracker scenario and threatened to walk off if it happened again. He said he was from that area and knew the kind of person that set it off. Ahhh, memories!

Terrace Youth - Yeah. I remember this one well. It was an unruly crowd from the start. Mainly because of the Quaaludes and the Florida sun. Plus Crosby just had to argue with the hecklers who didn’t dig the acoustic set. Then came nightfall. During Nash’s solo performance of Simple Man, some jerk up in the South stands set off a cherry bomb. A total hush fell over the place. Nash stopped playing; stood up; took off his harmonica harness and slammed it down on the piano and walked off. There was at least 10 minutes of silent uncertainty while the others tried to coax Graham back out onto the stage. I remember so well Stephen calling on the crowd to give up an applause so Graham would come back out and.. “tell us another little story”! He finally did come back. Stills said to the crowd later that.. “you people are the worst crowd we’ve ever played for”. But there were still plenty of good Tampa folks who tried to dig what they were laying down.

1974 was a very weird year.

Scott Nienhaus - Wonderful photos!!!I saw them on July 19th 1974 in Kansas City when I was 15. We took a radio station sponsored bus from St. Louis. It was quite an adventure! Great memories!

Karen - Lambusta was a friend and produced concerts with my husband around Florida. Great times! Thanks for bringing this one back.

Cassdog - I went to this show with my brother. Tickets were 8 bucks. We lived in St. Petersburg at the time. It had rained before the show, but it all cleared up by the start. I do recall the crowd was very rowdy. People were taking blankets and tossing people in the air. They started the show with Love the One your With, but just to give you some idea about the crowd, they were calling on CSNY to play Love the One Your With halfway through the show. You could here the crowd through their mikes. Crosby was mad and told the crowd, “We already played that.” There was a moment when Crosby wanted to create a special moment during the acoustic set, but with all of the whootin and hollerin, he just said forget it.

Terrace mentioned the cherry bomb incident. It was more like an M-80. Stills came out and told everyone that he had gone to Plant High school there in Tampa , that they had played up to crowds of 60,000 people and that we were the rudest crowd he’d every seen. After Nash walked off stage and then came back on to finish Our House. I do not think the song was Simple Man. After he finished, the audience gave Nash a 5 minute ovation. Stills then did a very impressive guitar instrumental that was quite fast and loud. The idea of doing anything soft after the incident were forsaken. After the bomb, they went into electric music for the rest of the evening.

Other memories were that Stills remarked at the large Pepsi Cola sign overlooking the stadium and referred to it as the Pepsi Cola Moon. At one point he slipped and fell on his back but instantly recovered. Also Young had cut his hair which I was bummed about. He had sun glasses and large side burns. Even though the show had a bad moment,in the end, they were all smiles and had a good time. It was the only stage set-up that included behind the stage an actual above ground swimming pool. Also lots of good looking groupies on the sides of the stage.

Woody Adams - CSNY Tampa Stadium that day was the best concert I ever went to. I forgot about the fireworks going off until I read the comments. Started out with Love The One You’re With when I was with another girl cause my girlfriend couldn’t go. The pictures here are great. Thanks for the memories.

Grietje Blaauw - They were the best!!!

Sylvia Blaauw - I like the use of the filter in this shot. It really fits in this picture. Nice work on CSNY.

Rick Rangel - I was there at the Houston show in 1974.There is a shot of Stills
playing acoustic on one of the cd inlay trays in his new box set that was taken from the Houston show.Anyway,these photos posted here are simply magnificent!!!Thanks for posting!!!

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